Fourteen people in France – backed by major environmental groups – have taken legal steps against the government for failing to protect the population from the effects of climate change. It’s the first case of its kind in the EU focused not on reducing emissions, but on adaptation – the real-world consequences people are already facing.
Issued on: 08/04/2025 - RFI
The town hall square of flooded Arques, in northern France, on 4 January 2024. Extreme weather like flooding is central to a new lawsuit against the French state. AFP - DENIS CHARLET
The lawsuit targets France’s third National Climate Change Adaptation Plan, known as Pnacc-3. Finalised on 10 March, it sets out 52 measures meant to prepare the country for a potential 4C temperature rise by 2100.
But critics say the measure falls far short of what’s needed.
“The content of this plan is largely insufficient,” the plaintiffs argue in a legal notice was sent to the government on Tuesday. “It does not effectively or fairly protect populations exposed to climate risks and does not guarantee funding that matches the challenges.”
‘It’s slowly killing us’
One of the plaintiffs is Salma Chaoui. In 2018, she moved into social housing in Paris with her younger brother and 53-year-old mother.
Mould soon appeared on the walls. Their landlord Paris Habitat – the public body that manages much of the city’s social housing – told them to air out the flat more. That didn’t work, so Salma tried renovations herself – also without success.
“There is a feeling of injustice and serious consequences for our health,” she told RFI.
“My little brother has a chronic disease, one of the causes of which is the presence of fungi, and climate change only reinforces the presence of these moulds. The more it rains, the hotter it gets, and the more moulds develop. It’s slowly killing us.”
Chaoui’s family has already taken Paris Habitat to court over poor insulation.
Environmental groups behind the case say their situation reflects how climate change is hitting those already in fragile housing and health situations the hardest.
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A growing coalition
Thirteen others have joined the lawsuit including five individuals, six members of local groups such as Locataires Ensemble (Tenants Together) and Urgence Maisons Fissurées (Emergency Cracked Houses), and three major NGOs – Greenpeace France, Oxfam France and Notre Affaire à Tous (Our Shared Responsibility).
These organisations also led the landmark “case of the century” climate lawsuit, launched in 2019 after a petition gathered over two million signatures in just one week.
In 2021, France’s administrative court found the state at fault for failing to meet its emissions targets and ordered it to take “all useful measures” to fix the damage.
The NGOs say it still hasn’t followed through.
Now attention is turning to the damage already being done – and what the state is doing, or failing to do, to protect people from it.
Floods, mould, heatwaves
The lawsuit highlights a wide range of risks. Farmer Jérôme Sergent, 43, saw his land flooded eight times during the winter of 2023-2024.
Across France, homes are cracking due to the expansion and contraction of clay soil – an issue that could affect 54 percent of houses, according to France Assureurs, the national federation of insurance companies.
Meanwhile people living in the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte are facing water shortages. “The taps are dry,” said Racha Mousdikoudine from the group Mayotte a Soif (Mayotte is Thirsty).
A 2023 study by the Foundation for the Housing of the Disadvantaged (formerly the Abbé Pierre Foundation) found that 55 percent of people in France had experienced uncomfortably high temperatures inside their homes – and one in four said it happened regularly.
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But most state policies still focus on keeping homes warm in winter. The foundation is calling for a “heatwave plan” to deal with worsening summer conditions.
The heat is a serious health risk for Jean-Raoul Plaussu-Monteil, a 45-year-old engineer in Isère, a department in the French Alps, who has epilepsy.
“Sleep is very important for dealing with epilepsy. But during heatwaves, sleep is greatly impaired,” he told journalists.
“We end up with avalanches of seizures that are much more difficult to control. There are also lesser known phenomena, such as sodium deficiency when you sweat profusely, which also triggers seizures.”
Roughly 600,000 people in France live with epilepsy. Many don’t drive, meaning they often live in cities where urban heat is worst.
“They suffer more from global warming even though they’re less responsible for it,” said Plaussu-Monteil.
Plan ‘inadequate’
The plaintiffs are not seeking compensation. They want the government to rewrite the Pnacc-3 and introduce effective, properly funded measures to protect people.
Official figures from 2016 said climate risks affected six in 10 people in France. That was nearly a decade ago – and temperatures have continued to climb.
France’s Court of Accounts has criticised the government for failing to act as a climate strategy leader. In a report last year, it said the state had not set clear targets or a path to reach them – one of the key roles of the adaptation plan.
The High Council for the Climate, an independent advisory body, echoed that criticism last month in its review of Pnacc-3.
“France is not yet ready to face the impacts of climate change,” it said, pointing to “a gap between the measures taken to deal with the impacts of climate change and adaptation needs”.
Council president Jean-François Soussana said the government is focusing on small adjustments when what is needed are “system transformations”. He added: “The Pnacc does not adequately address the needs of vulnerable categories – low-income households, elderly people, disabled people, children – who do not have the means to adapt to warming.”
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Growing risks
Of the plan’s 310 proposed actions, only 48 have any kind of cost estimate. Some of the biggest risks – such as flooding – have no budget assigned at all.
“Most measures remain at the diagnostic stage,” said the NGOs behind the case.
“Paradoxically through a lack of adaptation and necessary and urgent investments, we will incur gigantic expenses in the decades to come. I find that slightly unfair for future generations,” Plaussu-Monteil added.
The 161-page legal notice was sent to the government on 8 April. Officials now have two months to respond.
If the plaintiffs find the reply insufficient – which is expected – they will file a case with France’s highest administrative court, the Conseil d’État, or Council of State.
They’re not asking for money. They want action – to protect people in France not just from future climate threats, but from the dangers already here.
This story has been adapted from the original version in French by RFI's Géraud Bosman-Delzons
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